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25 January 2011

Congressman Westmoreland Responds to the State of the Union

This speech was President Obama’s opportunity to announce to Americans that he heard them at the polls in November and was ready to abandon his liberal agenda and shift to a more fiscally responsible style of governing. Instead, he used his State of the Union address as a means to continue to promote his unpopular idea that more government is good government and perpetuate his mantra of ‘spend now, pay later.’

He can use as many different words as he would like. I own a thesaurus too. And I know that every time the president promoted the importance of federal ‘investment,’ he was actually promoting increased government spending. Our national debt is already more than $14 trillion and is well on its way to becoming larger than the size of our entire economy. Increasing spending, which, by the way, really means increasing borrowing from countries like China who we are currently competing with in the global market, is irresponsible, plain and simple.

I believe in the power of the free market. I believe private industry grows the economy and creates jobs. I believe the hard work of Americans striving to be better, to improve their lives, to make this country better for our children and our grandchildren – I believe those are the things that fuel our economy. Growing government only stifles economic development, innovation, and job growth. This country grew to the number one economy in the world three times over by promoting growth in private industry – not relying on the federal government.